D I C K D I M E

Wednesday - August 27

3m with about 3000 feet of climbing. I got lost because it got dark early tonight. I found myself on a steep and technical downhill MTN bike course with obstacles. Eventually I found the service road and got back to Lions Head. ended up running 2.4 extra miles... but it was worth it!

Monday - August 25

Bike

1h 47m

32.00 miles

17.94 Mi/hr

Rode up Vail Pass but turned around before reaching the top because of the weather...

Justin just called me. Apparently I have been dubbed the 2008 Altitude Adjusted Most Valuable Player! How cool!! I totally didn't expect that especially since Ted and Hans had such smoking legs this weekend.

Sunday - August 24

My 3 legs at The Hood to Coast Relay totaled 17.88 miles and my AVG Per Mile was 5:55 per mile (Last year I averaged 6:10). Not bad considering two of my legs had 6-700 foot climbs in them... and about a 15 sec per mile improvement over last year!
Travel day home. I'm very tired. We took 2nd place in the Sub-Masters (30-40 yr old) division and 14th place overall (out of 1400 teams). We improved in our AG and in our overall placings... however we were 6 minutes slower than last year due to some technical errors and the loss of one of our best and most spirited runners, Justin. We did replace him with a ringer who has run a 2:25 marathon, however his time was 9 minutes slower than Justin's from the year before. Hopefully next year Justin is healthy so that we can take another stab at running the course in less than 20 hours. Our time this year was 20:26:something.
Mark and Adam did awesome! I brought them onto the team to replace a couple of guys who couldn't make it and they both slayed. They both shaved a lot of time from last year. They made me proud!
So much fun... Beer drinking and debauchery yesterday!
I have more to share! More tomorrow and a race report soon!
Bed now! 'nite...

Saturday - August 23

Run #1

37m 31s

6.10 miles

06m 09s /Mi

Leg 3

This leg is rated very hard

After driving through the night the morning brought in a dense fog which slowly burned off. My leg started just as the sun cooked off the fog and the heat kicked into full steam. I looked forward to getting this leg going because it was my last.

This leg has a 3.5 mile uphill right off the start. It goes up about 700 feet and it is really grueling. the last 2.6 miles are down hill and super fast.

I ran the first mile well and was passing people like they were walking. The film crew honed in on me and for the next mile filmed me! The directer was like, "keep the camera on him, he is moving" which really motivated me to run fast! I ran that mile - which is all uphill - at a 6:05 pace. I knew I was going to kill this leg. After the film crew peeled off I continued grinding to the top. After I crested the top I started hauling down the hill re-passing the crew and receiving some more kudos... on the last 2 miles of this run I pressed. Every time I felt tired and the urge to cruise it in, I tried to run faster... I finished the last mile cruising in at a sub-5 minute pace for the last 800 meters or so.

On the first leg my right calf started to get really tight, worse though was the 6 inch by 1 inch blister that developed on the outside of my left foot. I bought some new skin and tape and did the best I could with it.

Ted smoked his leg and really fired me up.

The leg is pretty flat with just a few rollers. I was pretty tired and this leg is hard because it is at like 2AM and along a main road; a straight and desolate shot.

Last year my avg pace was 5:53 per mile and my goal was to go under 5:50 per mile here... I did that and more! I started running and felt good but knew that I was pushing. Every time I felt like slowing down, I willed myself to go faster. It was very dark and I couldn't see my watch... at one point the auto lap beeped and I thought that I hit mile 5. I began to surge! However, it turned out that I was only on mile 4. I didn't want to slow it down so I maintained the surge and when I crossed the finish I couldn't believe my improvement of 10 seconds per mile over last year !

Friday - August 22

Run

36m 34s

6.16 miles

05m 53s /Mi

Leg one:

This leg is rated very hard.

I killed it! Last year I had a great H2C and I didn't expect to be able to take much time off last year. The team actually had a commitment pledge and each member guaranteed a certain number of seconds improvement. I ambitiously pledged 120 seconds. On the first leg I improved by 1:54 from last year!

Anyway, my first leg is really tough. It starts out flat with a slight downhill and then gradually starts going uphill until mile 3 where it goes straight up to the finish rising about 650 feet for the last 3 miles.

HOOD TO COAST RELAY - Day I: Big day... Sleep deprived, I drove to the airport on zero sleep (got on the plain with just minutes to spare!)and then flew into Portland with the Altitude Adjusted boys. Once the vans arrived we loaded up and then hit the grocery store for supplies. This year we didn't hang out in Portland like in years past and just drove straight to Mt. Hood.
The weather was absolutely beautiful and Mt. Hood stunning as usual; we did out team pictures and Adam (Gearwhore) got dressed in his very pretty uniform (pics soon) and toed the starting line at 6:45! Adam, as one of our new members had the honor of running the first leg. He didn't let us down and ran faster than last year's guy on all three of his legs! More importantly, he looked hot. So hot in fact, that many people commented that he was offensively good looking and I'm pretty sure that he will be featured in the upcoming Hood to Coast Relay movie that was being filmed this weekend.
Did I mentioned that I am sleep deprived? UGH.